The 18th-ranked Zags came to the Jenny Craig Pavilion, saw what USD had to offer and conquered the Toreros 68-50 before 4,158.

The Zags (14-3, 3-0 West Coast Conference) completed a WCC-opening road swing, which started with main title contenders Portland and Saint Mary’s before lesser-regarded USD (8-12, 1-3), unscathed and looked ready to sweep the table in the league regular season as they did last year and in 2006 and 2004.

“I’ve said all along that until someone steps up and knocks them off, it’s definitely going to be their league,” said USD coach, and former Zags assistant, Bill Grier. “Their players and their program is a notch above the rest of us.”

That left senior All-America candidate Matt Bouldin to do mostly supervisory work and contribute in ways other than the six points, three rebounds and three assists that showed on the stat sheet.

Asked whether he could have envisioned beforehand a 3-0 start to league play, Zags coach Mark Few said that optimistically, Gonzaga being Gonzaga, he could. And in retrospect, so could anyone who took note of the Bulldogs’ victories, less than 48 hours apart, over Oklahoma in Spokane and Illinois in Champagne-Urbana over New Year’s.

The bigger and more talented Zags outrebounded USD 38-30, blocked seven Toreros shots and outshot USD in every category. Not that it took much.

USD went 20-for-58 (34.5 percent) overall and a horrendously season low 6.7 percent (1-for-15) from three-point range, following an 0-for-6 first half with a 1-for-9 second.

“The shots we took tonight, a lot of them were tough and they (Gonzaga) had a lot to do with that,” Grier said. “I thought two things really hurt us tonight, defense in transition and shot selection.

“DeJon (Jackson) and Brandon (Johnson) are obviously two good players for us, and good scorers. But when the flow of the game goes against us, and they’re not knocking down shots, they have to trust in their teammates and give up the ball a little more.

“Because at times, we wind up standing around and everything stops when the ball’s in their hands.”

Jackson had team highs of 14 points and six rebounds, Johnson 13 points and Roberto Mafra added 10 for the Toreros. Johnson had four assists — about half what it would have been with better finishing touches from teammates.

But he was willing to shoulder the blame afterward.

“I take full responsibility for that game,” Johnson said. “We battled, but my shot selection wasn’t that good. I was trying to be aggressive, but there were too many times I didn’t have good shots.